Fund pickers share their thoughts on whether the AVI Global trust is a good option.
Eve Maddock-Jones, Reporter, Trustnet 08 February 2022:
A low allocation to the US, “rare” investment style and strong defensive track record, are some of the reasons analysts think the AVI Global trust is worth snapping up at a discount.
Joe Bauernfreund’s £1bn AVI Global Trust is a distinctive member of the IT Global sector, due to its different approach towards value investing.
Pigeonholing the trust as value, however, underestimates what the manager aims to achieve, the experts said. Rather than focusing on cheap valuations or out-of-favour names, he looks for high-quality but under researched companies trading at a discount…
In the past year AVI Global made 16.3%, the IT Global sector’s third best returns. This compares favourably with the likes of renowned investment trust Scottish Mortgage, for example, which lost 19.6%, the second worst performance during that time.
But this has not been the norm for the trust, which has bounced between first and fourth quartile over the years. Over 10 years it has lagged the sector, dipping into the third quartile (181.9%)…
Priyesh Parmar, associate director of investment companies research at Numis investment bank, was also bullish about the trust, stating that he would be “happy holding AVI Global”.
“The 8% discount on the listed fund offers some value and the fund does engage in buybacks which helps to limit the downside.”
James Carthew, head of investment companies at QuotedData, seconded this sentiment, adding: “In a world where speculative growth stocks are out of favour, AVI Global’s portfolio of decent businesses that the manager believes are valued at a sizeable discount to their true worth is holding up well.”
Carthew picked the trust as his favourite portfolio for last year and remained optimistic about its return prospects in 2022.
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